Trump 2.0: Rewriting Histories
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From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. This week, the president falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war against Russia. ordered independent federal agencies created by Congress to answer directly to him, and installed himself as the leader of Washington's premier cultural institution. To make sense of all of that, I spoke with three of my colleagues, White House reporter Zolan Kano-Youngs, national security reporter Charlie Savage, and writer-at-large Elizabeth Bumiller. It's Friday, February 21st. Friends, welcome to The Roundtable, where we acknowledge week after week that covering this presidency requires multiple minds in the same room at the same time. I want to thank you all for being here. Charlie. Thank you. Zolan. Thank you. Good to see you. And Elizabeth, making your debut here in this format. Thank you. And Elizabeth... Your resume requires just a little bit of an explanation. You were, until very recently, Charlie and Zolan's boss.
You were the Washington bureau chief overseeing all of our coverage of really the entire federal government during the first Trump administration and the entire Biden presidency, after which I think you justifiably collapsed into a heap and I assume...
Got a well-earned rest.
I would disagree with collapsing into a heap, but yes. Really appreciate all of you being here. Today's loose theme is a rewriting of history in three parts. And the first place where in many minds history is being rewritten over the past few days is the war in Ukraine. And the backdrop... is that Donald Trump began unilateral talks with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine without Ukraine's input, which we talked about in our roundtable last Friday. Zolan, if you would pick up the plot for us
Sure, so I think it's smart that you started this with the fact that Trump had this significant call with Vladimir Putin. That conversation basically prompted concern amongst Europeans as well as Americans that Ukraine was not going to have a seat at the negotiating table. The country that was invaded in this case was not going to have a say in any potential peace talks that could end the war. There are talks then in Saudi Arabia between U.S. officials and a Russian delegation. And Zelensky does not attend because he was not invited to those talks, even though it was his country that was invaded. So after he doesn't attend, you have President Trump come out and criticize Zelensky. Right.
And let me play that, Zolan, for all of us, because this is a moment I think worth lingering on, this specific remark from Trump.
And I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it's going very well. But today I heard, oh, we weren't invited. Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal.
And the context is, as you just said, Zolan, the president is growing impatient with Zelensky's complaints that he's not involved in the conversations with Russia. He's saying, Zelensky, you've been in this war for three years. You had a chance to end it. In fact, you started it. And I just want to linger on the idea that, of that particular remark, Elizabeth, because to many people's minds, that is not just false, but potentially a very deliberate rewriting of history.
A complete rewriting of history. Putin invaded Ukraine three years ago. That is a fact. It was not Zelensky's fault. Zelensky did not cause his country to be invaded. This is a classic Trump MO. It's just that the whole world knows it's wrong, but it would seem to be part of a deliberate strategy.
And what is the deliberateness of the strategy? I mean, what would be the rationale for saying this? If we assume that there is something deliberate about it, it didn't quite seem accidental.
Well, if you want to make a deal with Putin, you need to cast Zelensky as the villain here. Well, I think part of it also is that the deal that it looks like he's going to make is going to be a very favorable to Russia deal. They're going to be allowed to keep the territory that they unlawfully seized from Ukraine. And Trump has already said that Ukraine won't be allowed to join NATO, which is another Putin demand.
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